When a co-worker handed me a copy of The Phoenix Project, the 8-bit art on the cover looked fun. But the tagline — ‘A Novel About IT, DevOps and Helping your Business Win’ — sounded a bit like the usual buzzword management lingo. But I was clearly wrong, I loved this book! It is unlike anything I’ve read before and it really spoke to me because the situations were so… Read More »The Phoenix Project
This is a list, in no particular order, of principles to adhere when running a secure Linux server. SSH – Never allow direct SSH root access (set PermitRootLogin No). SSH – Do not use SSH keys without a passphrase. SSH – If possible, do not run SSH on a public IP interface (preferably use a management VLAN). SSH/SSL – Use strong SSH ciphers and MAC algorithms (Check with https://testssl.sh/). Never… Read More »Linux server principles
Long time readers will know I love sharing my music discoveries. You can read the 2015, 2016, 2017 editions here. At the half-point of 2018 I feel it is time again because of some exceptionally exciting bands! So here we go. I’ll start of with a band that is actually twice on this list. They’re just something else. Hailing from Switzerland, with Eraserhead shirts and Duesenberg guitars they popped into my Youtube… Read More »My 2018 music discoveries (first half!)
Most people know sort and uniq (or even diff) and usually use a mix of these tools when comparing two files. However sometimes, there is a shorter solution than piping different commands together: comm is your answer! The comm(1) command is one of the most powerful but also underused text tools in the coreutils package. Comm’s manpage description is as simple as it gets: “compare two sorted files line by line”. … Read More »GNU coreutils comm is amazing
The following lines are in my .vimrc file and make working with Vim all the better! I keep it pretty basic, so I don’t use the very popular fugitive.vim or NERDTree plugin.Put these lines in ~/.vimrc or /etc/vim/vimrc (depending on your distro, sometimes they are already there but need to be uncommented), and you’re good to go. As for a font, I like the Liberation Mono font (11pt). Explanation :command… Read More »My Vim setup
The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder is one of those books that always seems to pop up when ‘computer-people’ share book recommendations. Exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C and so on — you get the picture. It is supposedly about computers, and I like computers! So I had to read it. And the “Winner of the Pulitzer Price” notion on the cover also seemed promising! I had assumed it… Read More »The Soul of a New Machine – Tracy Kidder
I did a music post for 2015 and 2016, so here is 2017! Whether it’s blogs, podcasts, movies or the YouTube algorithm, if you keep your ears open there’s always new music to discover. So here we go in no particular order. Of course this list couldn’t be complete without Morrissey. So let’s start with him. He dropped a new album, caused a lot of drama about (misinterpreted) quotes in… Read More »My 2017 music disoveries
Here’s a chronological list of some of the physical things/tools/gadgets I bought in 2017. Physical as in, I’m leaving out experiences, books and cryptocoins. Here we go. The Sony MDR-ZX110 headphones are decent aka good enough for my use, but more importantly also cheap enough so I don’t have to worry when I break them, which will eventually happen sooner or later. Which is mostly sooner in my experience with… Read More »Favorite 2017 purchases
This post is for myself, two weeks ago. I needed something like this. Or, maybe it’s for you? You know a little bit of Python, kind of understand the MVC concept and have a clear understanding of RDBMS? Congratulations, you will have no trouble getting something up and running in Django in a couple of minutes. Whether you need to move a database to an editable, shareable environment for less… Read More »Django in 10 minutes
When the first trailer for Super Mario Odyssey came out it underscored the magic all Mario games seem to share. Because my four and five year old, who have no prior sentimental knowledge of Mario, made it vocally very clear this was the game they wanted (well, a T-Rex in the trailer also helps). So we got a Nintendo Switch, specifically for this game. And we’re two weeks in, so… Read More »Super Mario Odyssey
If there is one song from the already incredible U2 Red Rocks’ set that stands out for me it is definitely 11 O’Clock Tick Tock. You will never hear a better live song by 22 year old kids who are completely killing it. When I was already a fan for life this otherwise non-studio-album song cemented that belief even further. I clearly remember where I was when I first heard it. It… Read More »U2 – 11 O’Clock Tick Tock live at Red Rocks
This book by Ashlee Vance sat on my wish-list since it came out two years ago. So, long overdue, last week I finally got to it and boy, what a ‘fantastic‘ read it is. There is lot to say about the man, his ideas and the ways he goes about bringing those ideas to life. Whether you like stories about next-level entrepreneurship or bold boyish imagination about where we are moving… Read More »Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future